GROVELAND, N.Y. – Prison guards on strike at Groveland Correctional Facility in Livingston County say the latest deal on working conditions is still “no good”.

Guards across the state had until on Monday at 6:45 a.m. to accept the deal and resume work for their scheduled shifts or continue to strike and face consequences. The union representing corrections officers and the state’s Department of Corrections and Community Supervision reached the deal on Saturday night, nearly a week after the two parties reached their first deal.

News10NBC spoke with guards on the picket line on Sunday who said the latest deal still doesn’t address their concerns for safety in the workplace. The deal will go into effect if 85% of striking corrections officers return to work by Monday morning. We’re still working to learn how many corrections officers returned.

The deal says the state will rehire and reinstate the health insurance of any guard who was fired or resigned and will work towards ending mandatory 24-hour overtime. But striking guards say it fails to address their biggest concern – permanently eliminating the HALT Act. That’s the policy that limits solitary confinement and guards say it has made prisons more dangerous. Of the dozen or so on the picket line on Sunday, a majority said they wouldn’t be returning to work on Monday.

Geri Kraiza has been bringing supplies to striking guards since day two of the strike. She says she’ll continue standing with the guards for as long as she’s needed.

“I mean, we’ve stood out here and they’ve cried,” Kraiza said. “Their kids hate them. Their wives are so mad at them because they can’t leave, and then they can’t afford to quit their job. But that doesn’t mean anybody, anything to anybody in Albany. They’re not humans. They’re numbers.”

Gov. Kathy Hochul has deployed the National Guard to serve in the prisons while corrections officers are on strike, and she says she will keep them there for as long as they are needed.

This is far from the first deal that corrections officers have been offered. Guards had until 6:45 a.m. on Friday to return to work and accept a deal that the state offered but the union wasn’t involved in negotiating. Like previous deals, it suspends some parts of the HALT Act for at least 90 days but doesn’t repeal it.

That’s a similar promise to the first deal reached, between union and DOCCS leaders, on Thursday two weeks ago. That deal agreed to eliminate mandatory 24-hour overtime shifts, screen prison mail with technology to check for hazardous substances such as drugs, and implement programs to recruit more staff. Corrections officers had until Monday to return for their scheduled shifts but the strike continues for many.

RELATED:

• Corrections officer with FMLA has health insurance canceled amid strike, leaving wife without chemo treatment (March 6)
• Striking Attica prison guards return to work amid ongoing protests, retired CO warns of ‘rude awakening’ for state (March 6)
• Photos show National Guard sleeping on cots, mats in NY prisons amid corrections officer strike (March 3)
• Health insurance ending for corrections officers still on strike; National Guard still deployed (March 3)
• Prison guards at Groveland Correctional Facility face threats of job loss, penalties as they strike for better conditions (March 3)
• Tentative agreement reached between union and state leaders, aiming to end prison staff strikes (Feb. 28)
• Inmate describes ‘kid proportions’ meals and lack of programs amid ongoing prison strike (Feb. 25)

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